“Don’t Try”: The Philosophy of the Hardworking Charles Bukowski
openculture.com
openculture.com
It may be easy to dismiss Bukowski's advice because his abrasive and cynical delivery style, but I think he has a point. Follow your interests, and try to forget about your ego and the rest of the world.
(However, at the same time, I think it's important to be consistent and develop good habits that will prevent you from quitting at the first roadblock.)
Isn't the whole idea of capitalism to force most people to align themselves to exterior goals?
No more than a subsistence living as a hunter-gatherer, and in fact, likely less so. If you live absolutely primitively, then your circumstances force you to align your life and habits to those behaviors that sustain life. There is something external to yourself which constrains the actions that contribute to your continued survival.
The whole idea of capitalism is this: If you want something you do not have, then you must offer to those who have it something that those people value. There is something external to yourself which constrains the actions that contribute to your continued survival. This may force you to align your life and habits differently than in the subsistence scenario, but not necessarily more so.
In each scenario, there are things you can control, namely your actions and behavior. You can take actions which convert into shelter, water, and food. Whether there is nature or human volition on the other side doesn't matter so much. There are actions you can take which support your survival, and actions which don't. That the actions are different is not germane to the question as posed - there are external constraints that determine which of your own actions contribute to life.
As a side note, there is nothing inherently uncapitalistic about the subsistence scenario[0]. If you build yourself a shelter, do you consider that you own the shelter and get to control its use? If you do, this is capitalistic.
[0] This is phrased as a negative on purpose. I am not claiming that the subsistence scenario is inherently capitalistic.
The fact that the vast majority of people participating in a capitalistic society consume at a rate greater than mere subsistence indicates that they value luxury[0] more than passion, at least over some curve of resource consumption beyond subsistence. There may be an intersection point where marginal passion is valued more than marginal luxury. I will make no statement or judgment about where this intersection occurs, though you are free to.
[0] Here, I am using "luxury" in a non-standard way - to indicate those things which are beyond subsistence. In this definition, all resources beyond the minimum required to support life are luxuries. I don't have a better word to use. This is a reductive definition. Anything beyond the barest shelter and minimum calories to survive is luxury for the purpose of this definition and the argument in which it is used.
Likewise, building yourself a cabin in the woods is not a capitalist enterprise unless you plan on renting out that cabin and using the proceeds to build more cabins.
Trade and property are what people usually mean by 'capitalism'. I mean, yes, Marx popularized the term to refer to specific things he saw in the economies of Europe in his time, but when people refer to 'capitalism' today they mostly aren't referring to those things. They are referring to an economy built on private property and free markets.
If I own and control something, and you own and control something else, trade is a natural byproduct.
If I own and control something, then of course I can reap benefits from it in the future. Building a completely isolated cabin in the woods that I have no intention of any other human even seeing is capitalist insofar as I assume property rights over it. I am investing time and effort now to build a large, durable structure that I may reap the interest for the remainder of my life, that interest being the durability in storms and the saved effort of rebuilding semi-permanent shelter on a recurring basis.
This is exactly profit brought in by one's assets and labors. I may choose to invest the saved time in other activities, such as tool-building to make the rest of my life easier.
Of course, no man is an island. The concept of capitalism means little in the absence of other humans, though as we see above it can still have some small meaning.
If I exist in some loose society where I interact with others and they may see and interact with my cabin, it matters much more if I assume property rights over it. Even if I do not ever allow another human to interact with the cabin, I reap the same benefits of my investment discussed above.
Note, I've not brought up the idea of money yet. Money is absolutely not required for us to be able to describe something as capitalistic. This is a common misunderstanding, as "capital" today often refers to cash and cash-valued assets.
Now, I am not trying to make a claim that capitalism is necessary for trade, simply that capitalism is sufficient for trade. Similarly capitalism is not necessary for the idea of investing for the long term, merely sufficient.
We could, of course, talk through a thought experiment where humans in a socialistic society build a cabin or cabins and this community accrues benefits as we've discussed.
But, the cause is not capitalism. There are many causes and all of them link back to regulation, government and an unwillingness to allow for lower cost options for (housing, transportation and medical insurance). For example in housing. Consider this: We could build the type of homes humans had 1000s of years ago very easily and it could be super cheap, only costing maybe a few dozen hours worth of wages to through up a couple of wooden walls and a ceiling but none of that is legally allowable. We've created an environment where only housing of the highest possible quality is legally allowable, thus forcing everyone to work long hours to afford all that whether they want it or not. this is further compounded by the fact that we're forcing people into a very tiny amount of land, thus driving up the cost of land needlessly when there's soo much empty space out there that can't be developed.
There is a vast difference between hunting/gathering and what you think of when encountering the phrase "subsistence farming". You're on the right track when considering "the local strongman". Sedentary farmers of scheduled-harvest process-heavy plants (most grains) are vulnerable to the predations of government in a way that people who live more in tune with nature are not.
If given the choice, I think most beings would select into a stream optimizing for actual existence. Sounds strikingly close to evolution.
40 hours of work provides much more than subsistence, even at sub-minimum-wage income levels in the US.[0]
The vast majority of people earning an income in the US earn greater than the minimum wage. Only 2.1% of hourly workers earn at or below the minimum wage in 2018, and it's been trending downward for decades.[1]
Both a hunter-gatherer society and modern capitalist society offer opportunities for luxury[2] beyond subsistence. These are different. A value judgment between the two would be just that, and I don't want to fight about any differences among the things that you and I value.
EDIT : updated BLS link to latest, and reference to 2018, instead of 2017.
[0] Personal experience. I have lived at $10K/yr within the last decade in the US. My sister has, too. Note, this would be a full time $5/hr.
[1] https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage
[2] See my comment sibling to yours for this non-standard use. I don't have a better word. Here, I mean "luxury" as "beyond subsistence".
At times, capitalism has crushed people and kept them in miserable jobs in the interests of increasing wealth. It has overthrown democratically elected governments for the benefit of private fruit companies.
I am not anti capitalist, in fact I think it's better than all the other awful systems we know about, but just because it is doesn't mean it's optimal. I don't think a society built out of human beings can be optimal.
"Forget about the rest of the world" isn't helpful if someone has a family to support, or even themselves. It is pretty privileged to think everyone can choose to only work in a field of their choosing... I don't know if many janitors have an 'interest' in cleaning toilets... they have an interest in supporting themselves.
I have always appreciated Mike Rowe's views on work and this idea... it is ok to just work to make money, and find meaning in other parts of your life.
I'll say this, though. I hate development less than I would one of Rowe's jobs.
Is it to create a piece of (truly) original artistic expression?
Or is it to... put food on the table?
Both are perfectly valid. But -- as you are correct in noting -- quite different.
I meant your goal in choosing to do creative work, obviously.
Not in a hierarchy-of-needs sense.
Otherwise, when will you pursue your art? In the next life?
So, there is a choice available for creative people who don't wish to compromise: They can be fully into their work at the expense of the above cultural norms - perhaps if they are very successful in their niche they can have those things too, but there could be a very long or infinite period of their lives where this is not possible - that's the sacrifice.
I'm so sick of the 'I can't do XYZ because I have kids and a mortgage' talk - well maybe you should have thought about the long term ramifications of kids and a mortgage?
> it is ok to just work to make money, and find meaning in other parts of your life.
That you have to make that clear is a testament to how crazy work and more specifically developer culture is these days.
It seems like people just get stuck with the contradiction that if they are good people, they must care about others, but they don't like doing things for other people.
I've noticed that a lot of people in IT seem to gravitate towards a position in which they have power...to say "no". If you like saying "yes", you will go down a different road. And yes, I know the typical responses to that and why you shouldn't do that.
Have you ever read Bukowski before writing this? He worked odd jobs he loathed to support himself. He was fired often. He spent part of his life homeless.
To me it’s an average life, but mix luck in and you get fame and fortune.
I don't disagree, but one of the challenges is that humans have become really good at synthesizing devices that artificially give you that sensation at the expense of future regret. We call them "games".
For me, playing a good videogame (I'm particularly prone to Minecraft and roguelikes) exactly gives me that delightful incremental reward lost-in-the-process flow state. It's so good that I can lose myself in it for hours.
But then when I look up and see I've spent the entire night on it, I regret the lost opportunity to do something more meaningful for myself and others. So, for me, I try to seek out activities that blend enjoying the process and enjoying* the outcome. Too much of the former feels like a waste of time. Too much of the latter feels inauthentic and like a grind.
There is a sweet spot in the middle for passions that do involve some chore and grunt work, but are also joyful and leave me with an artifact I feel good about and can share with the world. That positive outcome helps motivate me to get through the un-fun parts.
Of course, if you don't feel regret, then by all means game away. But I do. Beyond a certain point, playing games feels like eating junk food. Gloriously satisfying during, but unnourishing and regretful afterwards.
If my friends inhabited and appreciated the structures I build in Minecraft as much as I do then it would be just as fulfilling as when I give them something I made with my hands. As it is it does feel slightly empty even though I enjoy it so much that I sketch plans up while I'm at work.
I know some people say they find growth and meaning through the storylines in video games and I'm not trying to invalidate that, but I find I personally get way more rewards from reading a challenging book or learning an instrument or developing a hobby or something.
In the Dark Souls community there are many challenge runs, for example finishing the game without leveling up your character, or by using only unupgraded starting weapons. When you play the games for the first time, you struggle even with a fully upgraded character and weapon, but after a while you don't need them. This gives a great sense of accomplishment.
Another need, related to mastery, is competition and overcoming opponents. When you start out playing Rocket League or Fortnite, you usually don't do very well. But as you play more, you become better and can do more things in game. Each new personal level of skill has its own challenges. Some people actively use the practice mode in the games to improve certain mechanics, others just play a lot of matches and improve that way. I would view a (to you, not compared to the pros) perfect Rocket League goal as something expressing both artistry, skill mastery, and an expression of your personal playing style. If you want to become good at either game, you also need intellectual growth, because you need to read guides online or watch YouTube videos to learn how to do new things, and then you try it in game until you learned them yourself.
Actually, even though they get critisised a lot because of loot boxes, skins in online multiplayer games also serve as personal artistic expressions. Designing an 80s-themed Rocket League car, or a car as disgusting-looking or silly-looking as possible, and showing it off to your teammates and opponents is definitely an expression of your person.
Also, to me, no one needs to see your creations for them to be artistic personal expressions. If your hobby is to draw or write short stories, that's a way for you to express yourself even if you never show them to anyone. It's the same with your house in Minecraft.
The older I get the easier it is to predict the end result of an activity and the easier it is to not start things that won't produce long term fulfilment.
What I really enjoy now are smaller indie titles with shorter gameplay and more focus on artwork, like Journey, Little Nightmares, A Way Out, Night in the Woods, Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
Even when the process was enjoyable (as in playing Souls-like games) because your own skill is improving it was very lacklustre compared to my other more recent hobbies (such as music), it gave me a sense of accomplishment that is very narrow, it only applies to that particular game and it isn't a skill that is broadening me as an individual. And then I realised I didn't like this kind of game anymore.
I'm still very much up for playing short games (or games I can play in a burst and let it sit), couch multiplayer/co-op games, etc., games that are an activity while socialising but single-player grind-y games aren't my thing anymore, they are too time consuming for my life nowadays.
Also, I disagree with the whole idea of "Don't Try" in context of many pursuits. Perhaps it applies to writing as described in the article, but a lot of stuff is worth doing because it creates value for others. That value is created only if we're successful. How can one engage in such activity without having the end goal as target?
IMO the best of both worlds is to have a good life by enjoying it as parent poster said (with games, reading, sports) and when possible putting all you have into trying to achieve your goals even if the possibility of success is remote. How would the Wright brothers achieve powered flight if they didn't try. It wouldn't happen organically as a side effect of their work.
And if for whatever reason don't train for a period and only game I get a little of what you are describing.
I think most people are just boring, lack imagination and don’t know anything interesting to do. Perhaps it’s tied to their ability to excel at a high paying job. But more likely, I’d say people are just diminished by education and life but somehow never can change. I know a lot of rich people who are terribly unhappy and do nothing at all with their vast wealth.
The world is infinite and extraordinary and full of joy and pain and suffering and intrigue - most people through upbringing, education and lack of long term thinking, cannot see past menial jobs, solving menial problems of no real value - simply because it passes the time and gives you a little lazy leisure and the occasional pat on the back from your superiors.
I can't blame people who don't find these punishments attractive.
It's a question of how much is it worth to you, and are you willing to pay the cost? Are you willing to suffer for years to make it and actually produce worthwhile art?
Some have the creative drive to the point where it's their only option. Others could take it or leave it.
Frankly, I used to try to look interesting and found it's far better to look boring and do what makes me happy. But that's just what works for me.
Never forget that we're all different people with somewhat different needs.
David Berman of the Silver Jews (may he rest in peace) wrote the following about the artistic struggle: "If we'd known what it would cost to get here, would we have chosen to?"
People who try and don't make it are subject to contempt and scorn.
It's society's way of saying, "We only need a few great people to be artists, and if you're not that, then go back to doing something else useful for people."
And in our society, usefulness is measured by income.
If you're from a poor family, they won't like it if you try to rise to a higher rank and may even reject you entirely. If you try a creative pursuit, you will suffer people's judgments and outright scorn on your journey.
Society needs people to shovel the gravel, and unless you can figure out a more efficient way to shovel even more gravel by tomorrow, it's back to your shovel. (The clock is ticking; what's your big idea, kid?)
There's an idea that you should be free from other people's judgments, and I think it's good practice to not take them to heart, but we still all social creatures and I think in the west we tend to overestimate how independent we really are, how much we are a part of our families, and how much we're a product of our environment.
Lots of people want to be artists and creatives and visionaries, but society needs very few of those, and if people deem you do not belong to that class then they will try their best to strike you down.
Many have tried, many have been stricken down.
Why do you say you think society needs very few artists and creatives and visionaries? I say we have too many people writing the same CRUD web apps (and usually, if the numbers are to be believed, having their projects killed, before or after launch). Artists at least produce something.
Many have tried, and then they go back to their boring useless desk jobs because they have a mortgage.
People are willing to pay for gas. They're willing to pay people to drill the wells and design and build the refineries. They're paying people to lay the pipe. They're paying business people to say, "Keeping track of all that data is hard and expensive, let's build a web app to manage that, lower our costs and become the best oil and gas company on the market."
So CRUD apps get built. Some of them are useless. Some save companies millions and millions of dollars. But on average I'm willing to assume businesses come out ahead with this whole "in house software" trend. Because I've personally built smaller pieces of CRUD software in house that has saved Nicole and Monica in accounting from weeks of dull spreadsheet work.
Of course, responsibility for actual products gets lost when you go through eight layers of management. Lots of people are pretending to work because it's enough to fool the VP who might come strolling by. But on average it must be working to some extent because I can buy gas and my car runs.
Live a healthy, happy life, otherwise you will be unhealthy and unhappy.
color me surprised; that kind of dedicated labor and isolationism sounds a lot like the startup world, to me.
pick the right specimen and they probably imbibe as much booze doing it, too.
Sounds like you’ve never experienced the joys of online dating.
Be thankful for this
Multiple girlfriends? Repeatedly?
I'm aware of 2 incidents involving Linda King. With other incidents (involving which girlfriends) are you referring to?
I won't defend his behavior - but please, let's be accurate here.
I didn't realize it at the time, but Women really ended on a "And they lived happily ever after" vibe. At the end of the day, the books boil down to a search for love and understanding.
Of course, that's just my impression and you may disagree. For sure the guy was a hell of a writer. His ability to create a certain atmosphere in only a few sentences was without peer.
That being said I'm not sure how well this holds up in modern world, especially when it comes to technology. A lot of initial barriars are really difficult to wrap your head around and often can only be overcome only by sheer will. That's the most important thing I've learned studying CS - sometimes you need to push through.
I'd really like to see some big data science on this. We all know the memes of Einsten flopping math or something but in reality most of the world changing actors seem to be quite predetermined, as in they didn't try. Do we have any cases where someone _did_ try and succeed in changing the world?
Stop trying to hit me and hit me.
If it's not sarcasm, fun isn't passion. Not even close.
Also yoda lol
So, work that one out.
"But wait, isn't that statement itself abs-"
"ONLY a Sith, you hear me? NOBODY. ELSE."
NO MORE.
NO LESS.
"First, what was NOT said. Obi Wan did NOT say, "There are no absolutes." And, he did NOT say only a Sith believes in absolutes.
Second, what he DOES say is "Only a Sith DEALS in absolutes." Dealing in absolutes has more to do with the unilateral nature of the correspondence. Once you make unilateral proposals, you aren't negotiating, you aren't even really "dealing" at all. Instead, you're dominating the other party/person.
Third, think of the context. Anakin is saying things like you're either with him or against him. Not, "let me hear what you think" or "give me your perspective on this matter." He's dealing in an absolute manner.
It's not a contradiction to say Only a Sith deals in absolutes. Making an absolute statement such as "There are no absolutes" would, however, be a contradiction."